Fort Worth weekly gazette. [volume] (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1887-05-27
DR.. Talmage breaches to the Veter-
ans ofthe NaVy--Seamen Remem-
bered at the Decoration Time.
Not Enough Said OF Those Who Fought
and Died on Ship Board In
the Late War;
Two Great LightsHold Up Before the Sea-
Earring Man In Admirals Foote
and Farragut.
Special to the Gazette.

tabernacle appropriate to the occasion, as
often, IA the annual commemoration, but
little dsd been said of those who served
in tt&aavy. An American flag adorned
IKE pHlpit, and the congregation sang
with great spirit;
My country, tits of thee,
Sweet land OF liberty.
DR.. Talmage's text was from James Iii,
+ "Behold Also the Ships" He said {;
If this exclamation was appropriate
about 1860 years ago, when it was writ
ten concerning the crude fishing smacks
tnat sailed Lake Gaiilee, how much more
appropriate in an age which has launched
from the dry docks for purposes of peace
the. Arizona of the Guion Line, the
City of Richmond of the Inman Line, the
Egypt of the National Line, the Germauic
of the White Star Line, the CirCassis of
the Anchor Line, the Etruria of the Gu
nard Line, and the Great Eastern, with
hull $50 feet lOng-not aifailure, for it
helped lay the Atlantic cable, and that
was enough glory for one ships existence
and in an age which for purposes of
war has launched the screw-sloops like
the Idaho, the Shenandoah, the Ossippe,
and our irOnclads like the Kalamazoo, the
Roanoke and the DundeTberg, and those
which have already been buried In the
deep like the Monitor, the HousatoniC, the
Weehawken and the Tecumseh, the tenn
pests ever since
SOUNDING voLLEY
over their watery sepuIchres and the
SCARED veterans of war shipping like the
Constitution or the Alliance, or the Con-
stellation, that have swung into the naval
yards to spend their last days, their
decks now all silent of the feet that trod
| them, their rigging all silent Of the hands
that chung to them, their port holes silent
of the braZen throats that once Numbered
out of them. If in the first century,
when war vessels were dependent on the
oars that padded at the side of them for
propulsion, my text was suggestive with
how much more emphasis and meaning
and overwhelming Renaissance we can
cry out, as we see the Kearsage lay
across the bow of the Alabama and sink
ing 1t, teaching foreign nations they had
better keep their hand off our American
fight, or as we see the ram Albemarle OF
the Confederate running out and
in the Roanoke and up and
OAOhA- liz IO1StJ LHLOH4uS every
thing into confusion IS no other
craft ever did, pursued by the Miami, the
Ceres, the SOuthteld, the Sassacus, the
Mattabesett, the Whitehead, the CommO-
dore Hull, the Louisiana, the Minnesota,
and other armed vessels, all trying in
vain TO catch her until Captain Cushing,
twenty-one years of age, and his men
blew her up, himself and only one other
escaping, and as l see the flagship Hart
ford, and the Richmond, and the Monon-
gahela, with other gunboats, sweep past
the batteries Of Port Hudson, and the
Mississippi flows forever free to all
northern and southern crafts, CRY out
with patriotic emotion that l cannot
suppress, if 1 would, and would not if
could: "Behold also the ships"
At the annual decoration of graves,
north and south, among Federals and
Confederates, full justice has been done
to the memory of those who fought on
the land IN our sad contest, but not
enough has been said Of those who on
ships deck dared and
SUFFERED ALL THINGS.
Lord God of the rivers and
the sea, help me in this ser
mon! So, ye admirals, commo-
dOres, commanders, captains, pilots, gun
ners, bOatswains, sailmakers, surgeons,
stokers, messmates and seamen of all
names, to use your own parlance, we
might as well get under way and stand
out toward sea. Let all land lubbers 90
ashore. Full speed now. -Four bells!
Never since the sea fight of Lepanto,
where three hundred royal galleys manned
by fifty thousand warriors,at sunrise, Sep
TENDER 8, 1911, met two hundred and fifty
royal galleys manned by one hundred and
twenty thousand men, and in the four
hours of battle eight thousand fell on one
side and twenty-five thousand on the
other; yea, never since the day when at
Actium, thirty-One years before Christ,
Augustus, with two hundred and sixty
ships, scattered the two hundred and
twenty ships of Mark Anthony and gained
universal dominion as the prize; yea,
since the day when at Salamis the twelve
hundred galleys of the PeTsians, manned
by five hundred thousand men,
we're crushed by Greeks with less
than third of that force;
yea, never since the time Of Noah, the
first ship captain, has the world seen
such miraculous creation as that OF the
American navy in 1861. There were about
two hundred available seamen in all the
naval stations and receiving ships, and
here and there an old vessel. Yet orders
were given to blockade $500 miles of sea
coast, greater than the whole coast of
Europe, and, beside that, the Ohio, Ten
nessee, Cumberland, Mississippi and
other great rivers, covering an extent of
1000 more miles, were to be patroIed.
No wonder the whole civilized world
burst into guffsw of laughter at the seem
ing impossibility. But the work was
done, done almost Immediately, done
and done with speed and
skill that
EcLIPsED ALL THE HISTORY
of naval architecture What brilliant
achievements are suggested by the mere
mention of the names OF the rear admir-
ais. II all they did should be writ
ten, every one, 1 suppose that even the
world itself could not contain the books
that should be written. But these
names have received the honors due.
The most of them went to their graves
under the cannonade of all the forts,
navy yards and men. of war, the flags Of
al the shipping and capitals at half mast.
But l recite to-day the deeds of our
naval heroes who have not yet received
appropriate recognition. "Behold also
the ships.n As we will never know what
our national prosperity is worth until we
realize what it cost, L recall the unrecited
TACT that the men of the navy ran especial
Asks. They had not only the human
%eaponry taeontend with, but the tides,
the fog,st storm. Not like other ships
eQuIf&s, s1ey run into harbor st the ap-
Fb2ch of sn equinox, or a cyclone, or a
hurricane, because the harbors were hos